Player Reload
Chapter 189 - 173 Crisis

Chapter 189: Chapter 173 Crisis

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his own living room.

"I’m going to take a shower."

Li Cheng let Gray Rain play games for a while, and he went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and started showering.

The script world with an Earth-like background shares highly similar physical constants, historical evolution, and cultural customs with the real universe.

However, to prevent players from accidentally bringing back obscure bacteria or deadly viruses, forums usually advise Transcendents to disinfect their entire bodies immediately after returning from the script world.

Some large organizations with strict management, like European Heavy Industry, would even prepare a large pool filled with disinfectant for employees to lie in before teleporting into the script—just in case they die, their teleported corpses would fall into the pool, preventing secondary contamination.

And in online games, those quirky teammates who suddenly say they’re going to stop playing to take a shower are most likely trolling, but there’s a small chance they are indeed Transcendents who have just completed a script task and need to rush to shower.

When he came out of the bathroom, Gray Rain was sitting cross-legged on the sofa playing a PS5 game, her two hands manipulating the controller, and two additional hands grown from her shoulder blades continuously stuffing snacks into her mouth.

Err... Gray Rain needs to consume the high-calorie food equivalent to 20-40 people every day, yet her weight hardly increases. Maybe there is something like a nuclear reactor inside the liquid metal.

"Excuse me."

Li Cheng, carrying his laptop, sat down beside Gray Rain and expertly logged into a ladder service, searching for Seoul’s map from 14 years ago, Spirit Sect, and information on people like Jiang Wanyong.

The map of Seoul from 14 years ago had no changes, while information on Spirit Sect, Jiang Wanyong, Jiang Zhihui, and similar descriptions could not be found at all.

This further proved that it was a semi-fictitious Otherworld, not a reflection of the actual Earth.

"Looking up the Jiang Wanyong family?"

Gray Rain glanced at Li Cheng’s laptop screen and curiously asked, "You arranged for them to hide in that place, are you sure it’s all right?"

"There were only ten minutes left till teleportation; there wasn’t enough time to get to the pier or the airport, so I had to arrange that location."

Li Cheng replied casually: "It should be fine. First, no one noticed the escape process; second, I gave a reward—a reward that’s ahead of the technology level of that world by twenty to thirty years."

——————

At the same moment, in the script world, Seoul Special City, Jung District, Myeong-dong 2 Street, No. 27, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea.

Inside an office that had been thoroughly screened and confirmed to be free of listening devices, the embassy officials wore complex expressions.

Their TV was broadcasting a news program.

A fox monster nearly three stories tall spewing Gravity Balls; a middle-aged comic book artist who could render modern Weapons useless with a wave of his hand and create Mist; Seoul’s National Assembly building crumbled to the ground by five thousand tons of steel-reinforced concrete from a height of three hundred meters...

It made one seriously doubt if this was a cruel April Fools’ Day joke.

However, the towering column of smoke to the southwest outside the window, the sound of emergency vehicles honking on the streets, and the incessant bustling of embassy staff downstairs repeatedly confirming whether any Chinese nationals were injured or killed, all proved that none of this was a joke.

Even more crucially...

On the office desk laid a Mechanical Exoskeleton, riddled with signs of battle.

Civilian Exoskeletons of the current era generally aim to enhance Strength, reduce the sensation of carrying heavy loads, and provide protection to personnel. They are mainly used in industrial and Medical fields, such as car assembly, logistics transportation, large ship fitting manufacturing, and mobility impairment rehabilitation training.

Military Exoskeletons... actually don’t differ much from civilian ones, mainly used in military logistics, nowhere near the standard of "Combat Mecha".

However, this Exoskeleton on the desk was completely different.

It was made of an obscure light high-strength alloy, equipped with an ultra-miniature smart fire-control system, high-energy polymer batteries, a central chip predicting the user’s next move by reading muscle bioelectricity through sensors, and a miniature minimally invasive brain-machine interface installed at the back of the neck...

Unlike those Extraordinary Powers that are incomprehensible and unreplicable, this Exoskeleton, at least thirty years ahead of the current era, could immediately be converted into practical research results, substantially advancing the technological level.

Not seizing the gifts of heaven is to court disaster...

The official holding his phone and dialing thought of this phrase and once again recalled the scene—

The middle-aged comic artist entered the embassy with his wife and two daughters, first requesting to seal off the area around the embassy, and after bargaining with the official and using the Exoskeleton as a reward, suddenly collapsed on the floor, then it was as if he became another person, completely losing the memory of the past few hours.

Du—

The phone connected, interrupting the official’s reminiscence. He cleared his throat and further detailed the report to his superiors in his homeland, arranging the secret evacuation of the Jiang Wanyong family from South Korea.

————

"Our world’s technological level has been ’ripened’ by killing fields. The Sea Shark Type Single Soldier Exoskeleton is a mature product of the Special Affairs Bureau; they can’t resist being tempted by it."

Li Cheng said without looking up.

"Oh."

Gray Rain thought for a moment, then asked, "Didn’t the player forum say that clever tricks that significantly disrupt the original course of the script world could lead to punishment by killing fields, triggering a plot rampage?"

"Indeed, there are such claims, and there are many typical examples."

Li Cheng curled his lips dismissively and said, "In Germany, a group of new players went to World War II to carry out a script task, fearing death on the Eastern Front.

The only surviving player who returned to the real world died of Radiation poisoning after recounting what happened.

And that’s not the most outrageous. There was a player who attempted to control Emperor Ying Zheng with a Spirit Sucking Monster larva and instead got taken down by him. The result was Ying Zheng forming an army of Spirit Sucking Monsters and sweeping through the six states, vanquishing the Xiongnu, and unifying the globe within half a year.

The player was then castrated and given the name Zhao Gao."

Li Cheng paused slightly, "However, this time the situation is different. First, I’ve already completed the script task. Second, the Sea Shark Exoskeleton doesn’t contain Extraordinary Elements and is only thirty years ahead of the time.

Besides, when it comes to disrupting the world’s direction, Jiang Zhihui did much worse than I did."

Gray Rain blinked in confusion, "Eh? What do you mean?"

"The plan for her was to establish a monopoly of faith, utilize her player status to cause chaos everywhere, and have billions believe in her.

From a barely Level 10 player, she wanted to ascend to divinity and become a Transcendent above Level 30.

This must have exceeded the tolerance limit of killing fields and triggered the punishment for me to hunt her down.

However, this sort of punishment also carries a mixture of danger and opportunity, a one-time test.

If Jiang Zhihui could survive this, defeat me, she would gain another set of player qualifications to bestow upon her most loyal follower."

Having casually explained, Li Cheng shut his laptop screen and began to properly consider the gains from this mission.